Anders gave a lovely slideshow presentation on the history of his comic Big Questions, in promotion of the 600-page collection just released by our pals at Drawn & Quarterly. I was kinda surprised to learn he used to be the frontman for a band (!), and one of his first self-published zines was a lyric booklet they would hand-out at shows (as seen above!).

And on that "note" (heh), here, upon request, is the setlist to the "Big Questions Mega-Mix" that I DJ'ed at Anders's signing. In honor of his new collection, all the songs I played were questions, natch:

For those of us who live in Seattle, the exhibit will be up for one more month, ending on August 31st. But for those of you not in the area, here are some pics from our opening night, with artists Megan Kelso and Nikki McClure in attendance!

Here's Megan signing copies of her latest release Queen of the Black Black, a collection of work from her influential self-published comix zine, Girlhero. I know I won't shut up about how great this book is, but seriously, it rules. It may have been borne from the 90's Riot Grrrl scene, but the stories inside are timeless.

And at the register, you may recognize Russ Battaglia from the legendary-but-now-defunct Fallout Records! When I was going through Megan's zine collection, I'd keep seeing Fallout ads in the backs of zines, usually illustrated by Peter Bagge!

And here's a display of Megan's aforementioned zine collection! We've got detail shots over at the Fantgraphics Flickr page, and if you've got any interest in the history of Riot Grrl zines, you'll definitely want to checkitout.

We were honored to be joined by artist Nikki McClure, who made the trip from Olympia for the day. (That's her, center, in the white shirt, talking with friends and fans.)

She and Megan sat down for an inspiring and educational discussion of the DIY scene in Olympia, and how the Riot Grrrl scene helped propel their own creative projects. You can now watch the entire discussion below (or on YouTube here)! (Apologies in advance for the sound quality.)

The brand-new art space GAS (Greenfield Art Salon) is opening their doors with a debut show that calls it like IT IS! Comic Book Art Show will feature complete comics from the Massachusetts-based art collective known as Mysterious Transmissions, featuring our own mysterious Fantagraphics artist Hans Rickheit.

As GAS explains, "the show will consist of a number of short comic book stories from each artist, presented in their entirety and intended for reading on the gallery walls." See? Comic. Book. Art. Show.

The show opens on Friday, August 5th at 7:30 PM at GAS [ 207 Main St, Greenfield MA ]. With a killer debut show like this, we're excited to see what future events will be held there!

One of the many awesome things about San Diego Comic-Con was getting to chat with pioneer of female comic art, Joyce Farmer, and current champion of the ladies, Esther Pearl Watson. We talked about how it wasn't always so easy to be a woman in the comics world. So, a show like this, spotlighting the latest wave of amazing women artists, just makes me really, really happy.

The Webb Gallery is located at 209 West Frankin Street in Waxahachie, TX, and the show runs through September 18th. And here's a print I spotted (and snapped a pic of!) at Esther's booth at SDCC that seems particularly appropriate for the show:

In a hilarious concept devised by fellow Mome artist Robert Goodin, Fantagraphics artists, employees and friends celebrated the SDCC debut of Belgian cartoonist Olivier Schrauwen’s first American book The Man Who Grew His Beard by adding their own chins to the cover! (But, hey, where's Rob's beard in all of this?)

This past weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con, Inkpot Awards were received by our artists Joyce Farmer, Frank Stack, and editor Bill Schelly! But no one brought their award back to the booth! So, instead you get this absolutely charming photo of Joyce and Frank.

Also on Saturday, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM, we'll be joined by Roger May, one of the contributors to our underground comix collection, Newave! He'll be joining two of the greats of the underground scene, Joyce Farmer and Frank Stack -- It's sure to be a fascinating hour!

And finally, we welcome special guest Martin Olson, author of the encyclopedic satire Encyclopedia of Hell (Feral House), a book that features illustrations by our very own hell-raiser, Tony Millionaire!! Martin will be signing on Friday, July 22nd from 5:00 to 6:00 PM.

So, to recap, here's our signing schedule for the rest of the weekend at Booth #1718! Come by and say hello!

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